Cults and Bose-Einstein Condensates

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Excellent link there, Iason. A book I'm re-reading and hope to provide a synopsis for here on the forums, The Religious Case Against Belief, deals partly with the notion that believers actually thrive on opposition, rather than being challenged by it.

I think that I've seen you mention that book before.  Sounds really interesting.  I need to find a copy of that and a good (objective) book on The Second Great Awakening.  There were a lot of crazy religions popping up in the US in the 19th century. It'd be very interesting to see why so many failed and why a few of them are still going strong.

I have mentioned it, and praised it heavily. This is because I'm young and therefore have not read a whole lot, meaning every time I pick up a new book I'm all "ZOMG this is the most brilliant book evar!"

As long as its in your reality... you're right

I find that everytime I pick up a new book, it impacts my perception of reality for a long while.

Books are teh awesome

[Rococo Modem Basilisk]

In an unrelated relationship between cults and bose-einstein condensates, both happen to be best modeled in network theory in terms of scale-free networks. The same is true of actors, and the world wide web.

[Thurnez Isa]

Bump --- well sort of... well might not be as related as my search made it out to be... but could be interesting article for you BIP Spags

When Prophecy Fails and Faith Persists:
A Theoretical Overview

By
Lorne L. Dawson

http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.60?cookieSet=1

nothing overly new, but so far well thought out and interesting...

[Iason Ouabache]

Your link is busted, Thornie.  Try this instead:

http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.60?prevSearch=allfield%3A(When+Prophecy+Fails+and+Faith+Persists)&searchHistoryKey=

[Thurnez Isa]

Your link is busted, Thornie.  Try this instead:

http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.60?prevSearch=allfield%3A(When+Prophecy+Fails+and+Faith+Persists)&searchHistoryKey=

strange it works on mine
but lately I've been learning that for some reason my computer doesn't follow the rules of the internet

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I think my favorite quote thus far is:

For people whose lives have become dominated by one powerful expectation,
and whose activities are dictated by what that belief requires, abandonment of
faith because of disappointment about a date would usually be too traumatic
an experience to contemplate. Reinterpretation is demanded.

My Dad practically stated that to me word for word once, but he concluded with:

"But, its obvious the end is coming, the Brothers just misunderstood the way the scriptures should have been translated!"

[Iason Ouabache]

Faith destroys the brain from inside out.